Q2 vs Q1 2021

BenchDirect
Insights Report
Global hotel direct channel performance
02 Benchmarking Your Hotel’s Direct
Channel Performance
There is no question about the importance of direct bookings for an
effective online distribution strategy, but are you comparing your brand’s
direct channel performance to the market? Benchmarking should be an
essential part of every hotel's direct growth strategy.

Traditional hotel benchmarking tends to be based on occupancy and rates

only, giving no visibility on how the end result came to be. At THN, we
thought you needed more, that’s why we built BenchDirect: the first
benchmarking platform for your direct channel.

With the aim of sharing the insights and trends we have observed when
analyzing BenchDirect data, we have published the first ever BenchDirect
Insights Report. Focusing purely on direct bookings, it compares the
direct channel performance of hotels by region in Q2 versus Q1 2021.
Anonymized data from 03
hotels worldwide
THN recognizes user behavior independently of
how a website is built or what technology it uses.
Data is taken from THN's global network of hotel
clients. The analysis covers the main metrics related
to an effective direct channel strategy:

Website Conversion Visitor

Disparities
traffic rates profile

For the report, the period analyzed is the second

quarter of 2021 compared to the first quarter of the
year. These dates are based on Browsing Dates (the
dates on which a user visited the hotel website,
made a search or booked a room), not stay dates at
the property.
04 The Split by Region
Location refers to the hotel’s location, not the visitor’s country of origin.
Data highlights
The volume of unique visitors
increased in Q2 versus Q1 across
all regions, apart from Latin
America and Southeast Asia
North America: highest volume of
website traffic per hotel room in both
periods and highest conversion from
visitors to searchers in Q2 2021
05
Average hotel website conversion
rate is around 3%.
Southeast Asia: highest drop in
conversion rate in Q2 (-29% vs Q1)

Middle East and Africa: highest OTAs with lowest disparity levels: International website traffic began
disparities frequency (30.4%) and Agoda in terms of disparities amount rising again in Q2 2021, except in
second highest disparities and Booking.com regarding Southern Europe and Middle East
amount (11.8%) in Q2 2021 disparities frequency & Africa

Mobile: still the top device when it Search still the lead source for traffic
comes to traffic acquisition. acquisition
Desktop: preferred device to complete Mexico & Caribbean: best performance
the booking process on Social media
06
Website
Traffic
Graph description
Indexed graph comparing the
median number of unique visitors
per hotel room landing on hotel
websites in Q1 versus Q2 2021.
North America Q1 index is set at
100, with the other regions
indexed to that figure.
To allow a fair comparison and
remove the impact of factors such
as high number of rooms per
property, the analysis compares
the median number of unique
visitors per hotel room, indexed.
The results vary greatly from region
to region and also from Q1 to Q2.
North America had the highest
volume of unique visitors per room
in both quarters.
The volume of unique visitors
increased in Q2 vs Q1 across all
regions, apart from Latin America
and Southeast Asia.
 Conversion Rate
Website conversion rate increased in Q2 vs Q1 in the majority
of regions, with the exception of Australasia, Middle East &
Africa and Southeast Asia.
Northern Europe retained the highest conversion rate and the
ranking order of the other regions did not change apart from
Southeast Asia.
With some of the lowest conversion rates in Q1, Eastern and
Western Europe showed the highest uplift in Q2 (+31% and
28% respectively).

Graph description
Comparison of the average total website conversion rate during Q1 versus
Q2 2021.

Total Conversion rate is the percentage of total unique website visitors

who made a booking.

South East Asia: biggest

decrease in conversion
from Q1 to Q2
-29%
 55.6% North America: the highest Visitor to Funnel
Booking Engine conversion rate in Q2 2021
Conversion Rate
Q2 2021

Breaking down the conversion rates within the

funnel to look at Visitors to Searchers as well
as Booking Engine conversion rate, the results
vary quite widely but most regions see some
improvement in Q2.
North America had the highest Visitor to
Booking Engine conversion rate in Q2 but was
less effective at converting those searches into
bookings (-7.6% versus Q1).
Despite a slight increase in Visitor to Booking
Engine conversion rate, Middle East & Africa
still had the lowest conversion rate at both
parts of the funnel.
In Q2, Latin America had one of the highest
Visitor to Booking Engine conversion rates.
The region’s Booking Engine to Booking
conversion was one of the lowest but saw the
highest uplift versus Q1 (+20.1%).
Graph description
Comparison of two types of website conversion rate during Q2 2021 and the percentage change versus Q1 2021, analyzing the full booking funnel.

Visitor to Booking Engine conversion is the % of unique visitors who made a search on the Booking Engine, while Booking Engine to Booking
conversion is the % of those visitors who made a search on the Booking Engine who ended up booking.
OTA Graph description
Average price disparities triggered by searches made on hotel websites in Q2 and the percentage change versus Q1 2021 by region.
09
Disparities Frequency is the % of times the OTA’s rate was cheaper than the hotel's rate
Amount is the % of price difference between the hotel's rate and the OTA rate.

In terms of Frequency of price

disparities occurring, the results Q2 2021
vary widely, from 13.1% in
Southern Europe to 30.4% in
Middle East & Africa.
The variance in terms of Amount
(the difference in rates detected)
is much lower, ranging from 9.7%
to 12.9%.
Although Southeast Asia
maintained the highest disparities
Amount, this is not so significant
as the Frequency in this region is
one of the lowest.
Hotels in Middle East & Africa
have the biggest issue with price
disparities, performing worst in
terms of Frequency (30.4%) and
second worst in Amount (11.8%).
Australasia experienced the
highest jump in Frequency of
disparities, going from the lowest
rate in Q1 to 17.8% in Q2 (+63%).
Main OTAs generating
Disparities (Frequency)

The frequency of price disparities varies not only by

region but by OTA.
In general, the Frequency is relatively low on
Booking.com, with the OTA showing disparities less
often across at least 4 regions in both periods.
Apart from a few regional exceptions, in both Q1
and Q2 Agoda tends to undercut hotel rates more
often than the other OTAs.
Hotels.com was the only OTA where the disparities
Frequency increased across all 10 regions in Q2
versus Q1.
In Q1 Australasia had the lowest frequency of
disparities across 3 OTAs but showed the highest
increase from Q1 to Q2 (+63%) in the Hotels.com
platform.

Graph description
Breakdown by region of the average Disparity Frequency for some of
the most relevant OTAs across all regions: Agoda, Booking.com,
Expedia and Hotels.com. The data looks at the % of times the OTA
rate was cheaper than the hotel's rate for searches made on the hotel’s
website during Q1 versus Q2 2021.
Main OTAs generating
Disparities (Amount)
The difference in rates tends to be slightly less on
Expedia. In Q1 Expedia had the lowest level of
disparities Amount across 5 regions but Agoda
overtook its position in Q2 showing the lowest levels
across 6 regions.
The previous slide shows that Booking.com tended to
undercut rates less frequently but in terms of
disparities Amount, it was the OTA with highest rate
differences across 4 regions in Q1 and 7 regions in
Q2.
In general, hotels in Mexico & Caribbean appeared to
have better control over disparities Amount, apart
from Agoda in Q1 and Hotels.com in Q2.
Apart from on Booking.com, hotels in Southeast Asia
had the biggest issue with disparities Amount on
these OTAs.

Graph description
Breakdown by region of the average Disparity Amount for some of
the most relevant OTAs across all regions: Agoda, Booking.com,
Expedia and Hotels.com. The data looks at the % of price difference
between the hotel's rate and the OTA rate for searches made on the
hotel’s website during Q1 versus Q2 2021.
 Throughout the pandemic international travel has been severely restricted, which is reflected in these results.

12 In general, the percentage of international traffic to hotel websites was extremely low apart from in Middle East & Africa, Eastern
Europe and Mexico & Caribbean.
In Q2, thanks to the relaxing of travel restrictions, the number of international website visitors began to increase again, except
for hotels in Southern Europe, Middle East & Africa and Mexico & Caribbean.

Q2 2021

Domestic vs
International
Traffic
Graph description
Comparison of the % of domestic versus international website
traffic by region during Q2 2021, and the percentage change
compared to Q1.

Domestic visitors being those coming from the same country as

the hotel's country, while International refers to visitors coming
from countries outside the hotel's country.
TOP 10 International 13
Source Markets

Graph description
The graphs on the following slides show the Top 10 International Source markets
for each region. The X axis is the % of visitors from each source market in Q2
2021. The Y axis is the percentage change versus Q1 2021 for each of these
markets.

International market refers to visitors coming from countries outside the hotel's
country location.

NOTE: The scale is different for each graph depending on the ratio of international
visitors versus domestic visitors in each region.
 NORTH AMERICA MEXICO & CARIBBEAN
Mexico Spain
Mexico Spain

Canada
Canada

Germany
Germany
United States
Germany United States
Germany Brazil
India Brazil
India Canada Peru Colombia
Argentina Canada Peru Colombia
Argentina
France France
France Sweden United States France
United Kingdom
Sweden United States United
United States
Kingdom United Kingdom United Kingdom
United Kingdom

Argentina
Japan Argentina
Japan Japan

Q2 2021 Q2 2021

LATIN AMERICA
Germany

Canada
Mexico

Spain
Colombia United States
Peru
Ecuador
Guatemala

Argentina

Q2 2021
Top 10 International Source Markets
 NORTHERN EUROPE EASTERN EUROPE
Hungary
Spain
Poland

Czech Republic Austria

Serbia Italy Germany
Ireland

Switzerland
Norway United Kingdom
United States
Denmark Germany
Slovenia
France Sweden
United States
Netherlands

Q2 2021 Q2 2021

SOUTHERN EUROPE WESTERN EUROPE

Spain
Germany
Belgium

Austria

Netherlands Switzerland
Germany Netherlands
Switzerland Italy
Italy France
Belgium Spain
France

Ireland United Kingdom

United States United Kingdom Q2 2021
United States

Q2 2021 Q2 2021
Top 10 International Source Markets
MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA SOUTH EAST ASIA
Saudi Arabia France

Japan
Germany
United States
Singapore
India
SwitzerlandIndia Germany France United States
Italy Sweden
Canada
Netherlands United Kingdom United Kingdom
Russia
Australia

Q2 2021 Q2 2021

AUSTRALASIA
Australia

New Zealand

Canada
Singapore India

France
United States
Japan
Philippines
United Kingdom

Q2 2021
Top 10 International Source Markets
Visitor Profile: Booking Window, Length of Stay
Q2 2021
Across the regions, there is no obvious correlation between Lead Time and Length of Stay.
In Q2, guests were booking less in advance compared to Q1, with the Lead Time decreasing in all
regions apart from Mexico & Caribbean and Middle East & Africa.
Length of stay increased in all regions in Q2, with the exception of Mexico & Caribbean, Eastern and
Western Europe.
17
Graph description
The graph compares two key direct booking metrics by region:
o Booking Window - the average number of days between the date of booking and the
check-in date (lead time)
o Length of Stay - the average number of nights per booking made on the hotel website
The analysis takes into account all direct bookings confirmed on hotel websites during
Q2 2021 for stay dates throughout the full 2021 calendar year. The table shows the
percentage change versus Q1 2021.
18
Visitors by
Device
Q2 2021

In line with global trends, we see mobile-first

thinking prevalent for browsing hotel websites,
with 7 out of 10 regions having the majority of
their traffic coming from mobile.
The percentage of traffic coming from a Tablet
device is minimal, with the exception of Europe
where the figures tend to be slightly higher.
There is no clear pattern by region in terms of
changes of devices used in Q2 versus Q1.
Southern Europe saw the greatest increase in
mobile traffic in Q2 whereas Southeast Asia
experienced the greatest decrease.

Graph description
Breakdown of hotel website traffic in Q2 2021 by region and by
device (Mobile, Desktop and Tablet). Also showing the
percentage change versus Q1 2021 for each region.
 Graph description

19
Comparison of the average hotel website conversion rate by device
(Mobile, Desktop and Tablet) for each region. Based on the device
on which the actual direct booking occurred and comparing Q1
versus Q2 2021.

Q2 2021

Conversion by
Device
In Q2, hotel website conversion rates on mobile and
desktop increased almost everywhere apart from
Australasia, Southeast Asia and Middle East & Africa.
Conversion rates in Southeast Asia decreased the most
in Q2, dropping by more than 20% on all devices.
Consistent with global trends, conversion rates on
desktop continue to be higher than on mobile in every
single region. Given the high volume of mobile traffic,
there is an opportunity for hotels to improve the
mobile user experience and boost direct bookings.
Even though tablets represent a very low volume of
traffic, the conversion rate on this device is surprisingly
high in some regions.
20 Visitors by Source
Apart from Latin America, Eastern Europe and Southeast
Asia, in Q2 Search still represented the highest volume of
traffic for hotels in all regions, despite decreasing in
weight almost everywhere versus Q1.
Excluding “Other”, Direct traffic is the second largest
traffic source for hotels but this channel’s weight
decreased during Q2 in 7 of the 10 regions.
In Q2, Social represented less than 3.3% of traffic in all
regions apart from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.
The percentage of traffic from Metasearch is even less
than Social across all regions, only going above 1% in
Southern Europe and Mexico & Caribbean.

Graph description
Breakdown of hotel website traffic in Q2 2021 by region and by source, as well as
the percentage change versus Q1 2021.

The traffic source refers to the channel the user was browsing on before clicking
to arrive on the hotel website.

NOTE: Search includes both organic and paid search.

Q2 2021
 21
Conversion by
Source
In Search, conversion rates increased from Q1 to Q2 in
all regions except Southeast Asia and Australasia.
Southern Europe had the highest conversion rate (2.5%)
in Search in Q2.
Conversion rates from Direct traffic increased from Q1 to
Q2 in 6 out of 10 regions, with Eastern Europe showing
the highest conversion rate for this source (2.2%).
Conversion rates for Social media tend to be relatively
low with the exception of Mexico and Caribbean which
reached 4.6% in Q2.

Table description
Breakdown of hotel website conversion rates by source and by region.
Comparison between Q1 and Q2 2021.
22 Key takeaways
Looking at the evolution from Q1 to Q2 2021, there are some positive signs of recovery for the hotel industry
In terms of website traffic, the volume of unique visitors per room increased in Q2 versus Q1 across all regions, apart from Latin America and
Southeast Asia. North America had the highest volume of unique visitors per room in both quarters, predominantly domestic.
Website conversion rates also increased in the majority of regions, with the exception of Australasia, Middle East & Africa and Southeast Asia.
With less border restrictions, international traffic began rising again in Q2, except in Southern Europe and Middle East & Africa.
Length of stay increased in all regions in Q2, with the exception of Mexico & Caribbean, Eastern and Western Europe.

The situation varies widely by region Price disparities continue to be an issue for hotel brands

Northern Europe led the pack for total website conversion
rate in both quarters, achieving a rate of 6.5% in Q2, while
Middle East & Africa had the lowest rate in both quarters,
and only 1.5% in Q2.
Booking window varies from less than one month in
Middle East & Africa to almost three months lead time in
North America.
Disparities Frequency results were wide-ranging, from 13.1% in
Southern Europe to 30.4% in Middle East & Africa. This region also
had the second highest disparities Amount (11.8%).
Disparities Amount variance was much lower, ranging from 9.7% to
12.9%. Southeast Asia had the highest Disparities Amount, but this is
not so significant as its Frequency was one of the lowest.
Key takeaways 23
Mobile-first thinking is still predominant Search is a key source of traffic for hotels

Mobile is still the top device in terms of hotel website traffic
acquisition, with 7 out of 10 regions having the majority of their
traffic coming from mobile.
With higher conversion rates on desktop than in mobile in all
regions, desktop is still the preferred device when completing
the booking process.
In Q2 Search still represented the highest volume of traffic
for hotels in 7 out of 10 regions, despite decreasing in
weight almost everywhere versus Q1.
Search conversion rates increased in Q2 across all regions
except Southeast Asia and Australasia.

There are clear opportunities for hotel brands to boost their direct bookings:
Website traffic increased in Q2 but with an average of 97% of visitors leaving the hotel website without booking, there is a huge opportunity for hotels
to increase their direct bookings by focusing on improving conversion rates.
The large variance of conversion rates at different steps of the funnel highlights the importance of understanding a hotel’s performance along the
funnel in order to achieve a higher overall conversion rate. Hotels can enhance the website experience and move users down the booking funnel using
techniques such as website personalization.
The lower conversion rates on mobile also indicate that it makes sense for hotels to focus more resources on optimizing the mobile user experience.
Price disparities are an issue for the vast majority of hotels globally. Given that disparities negatively impact direct booking volumes, hotel brands can
boost conversion rates by monitoring disparities, reassuring users they have the best available rate and offering a price match when rates are undercut.
 TM
BenchDirect

Understand your hotel brand’s direct channel

like never before and avoid being left in the dark
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